Sour Sweets

The other day an acquaintance asked for my opinion on an article about mercury contamination in high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Here’s my response—corrections welcome:My first smart-ass response is “good thing I only drink cane sugar or diet sodas.” ;)
My initial, unreasoned, reactionary response to the article itself is “yay… more sensationalist hyperbole from the Huff.”

First off, let me say that I’m no fan of HFCS. It has a sour aftertaste, contributes more to obesity than other sugars, and only exists due to horribly flawed protectionist tariffs on sugar and corporate subsidies on corn production. In other words, as with bottled water we discussed previously, there are enough legitimate, uncontroversial reasons to dislike HFCS that we don’t need to resort to poorly-supported scare tactics.

You need to be a member of Atheist Nexus to add comments!

There are a lot of other reasons why we should avoid corn-syrup in large quantities - but cannot. For instance, the body does not get the same "stop-full" reaction from eating it that it does from sugar. So we over eat and drink it - and get obese.